Browsed byTag: Hermes

The story is told by Roman writer, Hyginus, that, one day, while Hermes was traveling through Arcadia, he witnessed two serpents engaged in a fierce battle. When Hermes placed his caduceus between them, they wrapped themselves around it and were at peace with one another. Thus, Hermes’ caduceus, to this day, has been associated with healing and a state of peace. In the cosmology of the mundus imaginalis, Hermes has been given the task of bringing about peace and…

We, at least we who have a background in Judeo-Christian religion, have been taught all our lives about angels. Other religions, of course, have a similar idea. The word, angel, carries so much baggage that I hesitate using it. Immediately, one thinks of winged creatures, usually fat babies, who bring some sort of blessing to humanity. Usually, we think of these beings as originating in some sort of heavenly paradise, but I have an idea as to what they actually…

…the great advantage of Mercurial intelligence is its power to keep the soul in motion, spiraling down toward a vortex of significance. Mercury keeps the carousel of interpretation moving, feeding wonder and curiosity instead of granting the stupor of final conquest (Moore 153). The primary way the soul is deepened is through imagination. When we have new ideas about something we’re thinking about metaphorically, such as how a spiral exemplifies the movement of the soul, or how snowflakes are perfect…

Hermes, as the World Daimon, plays a crucial role in the lives of all human beings. It is he who is responsible for guiding us through our lives via our individual daimons at his command. Don’t forget, we are not speaking literally here; we are creating mythology. Since there is a correlation between the individual and the collective, microsom and macrocosm, as above, so below, we can compare the roles of the World Daimon and the various invidual daimons. Their…

One characteristic of Hermes that makes him perfect for the role of World Daimon is his mastery of the liminal, the metaxical. The Platonic metaxy, the place of Soul, that intermediate region between contrarieties, this is the state of being that is ruled by Hermes. He has been called, by Edward Edinger, the patron god of depth psychology, because of the depth psychologist’s’ concern with mediating consciousness and unconsciousness. It is in this place that Soul dwells, and Hermes is…

It makes sense that the World Daimon is the god, Hermes. The World Daimon, as I proposed in my last article, is a god of many faces, ever changing, mercurial. Hermes has traditionally been called a god of many faces. He is guide of souls and messenger of the gods. Hermes is closely linked to the Anima Mundi, as we are closely linked to our daimones. The relationship between soul and daimon is really that of mirror image. According to…

Guardian Spirit of the Waters, 1878, by Odilon Redon For this article, I am assuming James Hillman’s thesis to be true, that everyone has a personal daimon that accompanies one throughout one’s life. Hillman’s book, Soul’s Code concerns this issue. I also take the words of Marsilio Ficino to be true when he said, Whoever . . . scrutinizes his mind . . . will find his own natural work, and will find likewise his own star and daemon, and…